Jacob Hester gets a congratulations from coach John Fox after his TD against Arizona last week. (Jack Dempsey, The Associated Press)

The Broncos called running back/fullback Jacob Hester at about 11 p.m. Saturday. It was not with good news. The team informed Hester he was released.

The 5-foot-11, 225-pound Hester was the Broncos only fullback and had made the initial 53-man roster.

After playing four seasons with the San Diego chargers, Hester was cut at this time last year and signed in late-November with the Broncos. He played in three regular-season games for the Broncos and their playoff loss against Baltimore.

“I’m a little bit surprised, a little shocked,” Hester said Sunday morning. He had just signed a lease on a place Saturday.

The Broncos are expected to soon sign a player at another position to their 53-man roster.

The Broncos now have four tailbacks on their roster: Montee Ball, Knowshon Moreno, Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson, who is out another two to four weeks with a sprained medical collateral ligament in his right knee.

Mike Klis has been with The Denver Post since 1998, after working 13 years with the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. Major League Baseball was Klis' initial passion. He started covering the Colorado Rockies after Coors Field was approved for construction in August 1990.

Nicki Jhabvala is the Sports Digital News Editor for The Denver Post. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor, and she was most recently the overnight home page editor at the New York Times. She has reported regularly on the Broncos since joining the staff.

A published author and award-winning journalist, Benjamin Hochman is a sports columnist for The Denver Post. He previously worked on the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, winners of two Pulitzer Prizes for their Hurricane Katrina coverage.